Daniel Cormier not looking past Staring, but has eye on post-Strikeforce future

OKLAHOMA CITY – Know one thing about Daniel Cormier: He’s not afraid to call you on something if he has to.

Set up on Thursday with the classic sports journalism lead-in of, “I know you’re not looking past this next one, but …,” Cormier had little choice but to set things straight.

Cormier (10-0 MMA, 7-0 SF) fights Dion Staring (28-7 MMA, 0-0 SF) on Saturday in the co-main event of “Strikeforce: Marquardt vs. Saffiedine,” the promotion’s final show before closing up shop permanently. Given Staring’s relative anonymity on the mainstream MMA stage – despite 35 career fights, 22 stoppages in 28 wins and Alistair Overeem as a 12-year training partner – and the 20-to-1 odds in Cormier’s favor, finding a polite way to ask if he’s looking past his opponent might, in this case, be almost appropriate.

The gist was whether or not Cormier is looking at the calendar and thinking about his transition to the UFC, which for all intents and purposes takes place right about the time he leaves his after-party on Saturday night. The calendar shows an April 20 date for a UFC on FOX show in San Jose, Calif., where Cormier makes his training home at American Kickboxing Academy.

He’s mentioned wanting to be ready for his UFC debut by April. Frank Mir, who he was supposed to fight in November before Mir was injured, still wants to get it on. He could be ready by then. Cormier could be ready by then, barring some major injury on Saturday night.

But Cormier saw through the tip-toeing-around of the query.

“It’s kind of a weird question, you know? You answer the question before you even ask the question,” Cormier told MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com) on Thursday at his hotel in Oklahoma City. “Of course, that’s what everybody thinks. ‘Oh, he’s looking past him.’ But we’re sitting here, you’re asking questions, and I’m obligated to answer the question.

“If I’m looking to my first fight in the UFC, then yeah – I’d love to fight on April 20 in San Jose and I’d like the fight I was scheduled to fight in November. I’d like to fight Frank Mir in San Jose for my first UFC fight. It works out perfectly, and you don’t have to be a genius to figure that out. Joe Silva’s the matchmaker, and there’s no job to be done. Frank said he’d like to fight me, and I’m saying, ‘OK, let’s do it in San Jose on FOX.'”

It was pretty obvious Cormier knew his message had gotten through when a backtracking apology was taking place, as he was explained to that it wasn’t the intent to imply he was looking past Staring.

“Your face is getting all red,” he said. “I’m not being mean or anything. I’m just saying.”

The fact is, Cormier knows the rest of the MMA world is looking past Staring, even if he isn’t. He can’t afford to. A loss might not derail his plans to go to the UFC, or the UFC’s plans for him. But it certainly would have people casting a cautious eye in his direction going forward.

And that’s why there’s no plan for Saturday – at least none he’ll reveal – other than get the victory. Get the victory, help turn the lights out on the Strikeforce era and move on, be it for a fight with Mir or whoever.

A decisive, send-a-message type of win? He’ll take one, but that’s not what’s important.

“I just want to win,” he said. “I think my career has spoken for itself so far. I’ve won every fight I’ve been in, and I’ve fought some good guys and beaten them. So this victory or this fight – it’s not needed. I just need to get my hand raised in any way that I can.”

Because Staring is a mystery to most, and probably was somewhat of a mystery to Cormier when he got the call saying that would be his opponent, he enters the fight with caution.

“I relate it to when you’re a kid – you’re scared of the unknown, scared of the dark, and that’s kind of what he is,” he said. “No one’s really seen him fight much. It’s really a fight where you’re going into the unknown, and that makes it a dangerous fight. But immediately, I thought, ‘Get back to work and prepare as well as I can, be thorough and be ready when Jan. 12 comes.’ I don’t make the fights. I just show up and fight.”

If he shows up and fights and wins, well, then he can start thinking ahead toward Frank Mir. Or maybe even toward what could happen after that. With his AKA teammate Cain Velasquez now holding the UFC heavyweight title again, and with no intention of fighting him for the belt, Cormier has light heavyweight in his sights, too.

He wrestled for years at 211 pounds. Making 205 is something he believes is doable. And it’s a funny thing about the timing when you you’re planning ahead – ahem, not looking past, but planning ahead.

Light heavyweight champ Jon Jones defends his title on April 27 against Chael Sonnen. A win over Staring, a win over Frank Mir and then a few months of weight cutting for a title shot at 205? That might be right up Cormier’s alley.

“In an ideal universe, if I had three fights this year, it would be Dion Staring, Frank Mir in April and, if I was offered the fight against Jon Jones (or Sonnen) in the fall, yeah, I’d definitely take those months to get the weight off and go there,” he said.

But first comes Dion Staring. And he’s not looking past him.

“I’ve got to fight where I’m comfortable and how I want to fight,” Cormier said. “That’s usually how it plays out. If I can do what I’m used to doing and what I normally do, I should be OK.”

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